I believe that the conversation matters. If in the attempt to realize the reign of God on earth, we cannot engage one another in respectful and grace-filled dialogue, we might as well not even try.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

"What I know not, teach thou me!"

In the Preface to
Volume V of his collected works, John Wesley writes with prophetic humility
regarding how we might learn how to disagree in love. This should be required
study for all future General Conference delegations, and is definitely worth a
close reading.

1. The following Sermons contain the substance of what I
have been preaching for between eight and nine years last past (in the year
1747). During that time I have frequently spoken in public, on every subject in
the ensuing collection: and I am not conscious, that there is any one point of
doctrine on which I am accustomed to speak in public, which is not here, incidentally,
if not professedly, laid before every Christian reader. Every serious man, who
peruses these, will therefore see in the clearest manner, what these doctrines
are, which I embrace and teach, as the essentials of true religion.

2. But I am thoroughly sensible, these are not proposed in
such a manner as some may expect. Nothing here appears in an elaborate, elegant,
or oratorical dress. If it had been my desire or design to write thus, my
leisure would not permit. But, in truth, I, at present, designed nothing less;
for I now write, as I generally speak, ad populum: to the bulk of mankind, to
those who neither relish nor understand the art of speaking; but who,
notwithstanding, are competent judges of those truths, which are necessary to
present and future happiness. I mention this, that curious readers may spare
themselves the labour of seeking for what they will not find.

3. I design plain truth for plain people: therefore, of set
purpose, I abstain from all nice and philosophical speculations; from all
perplexed and intricate reasonings; and, as far as possible, from even the show
of learning, unless in sometimes citing the original Scriptures. I labour to
avoid all words which are not easy to be understood, all which are not used in
common life : and, in particular, those kinds of technical terms, that so
frequently occur in bodies of divinity, those modes of speaking, which men of
reading are intimately acquainted with, but which, to common people, are an unknown
tongue. Yet I am not assured, that I do not sometimes slide into them unawares:
it is so extremely natural to imagine, that a word, which is familiar to ourselves,
is so to all the world.

4. Nay, my design is, in some sense, to forget all that ever
I have read in my life. I mean to speak, in the general, as if I had never read
one author, ancient or modern: (always excepting the inspired.) I am persuaded,
that on the one hand, this may be a mean of enabling me more clearly to express
the sentiments of my heart, while I simply follow the chain of my own thoughts,
without entangling myself with those of other men: and that, on the other, I
shall come with fewer weights upon my mind, with less of prejudice and prepossession,
either to search for myself, or to deliver to others the naked truths of the
gospel.

5. To candid, reasonable men, I am not afraid to lay open
what have been the inmost thoughts of my heart. I have thought - I am a
creature of a day, passing through life, as an arrow through the air. I am a
spirit come from God, and returning to God: just hovering over the great gulf;
till a few moments hence, I am no more seen! I drop into an unchangeable
eternity! I want to know one thing, the way to heaven: how to land safe on that
happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end
he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book! O give me that book! At
any price, give me the Book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me.
Let me be homo unius libri (a man of
one book.) Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone;
only God is here. In his presence I open, I read his book; for this eud, to
find the way to heaven. Is there a doubt concerning the meaning of what I read?
Does anything appear dark and intricate? I lift up my heart to the Father of
Lights. - Lord, is it not thy word, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask
of God." Thou "givest liberally and upbraidest not" Thou hast
said, "If any be willing to do thy will, he shall know." I am willing
to do; Let me know thy will. I then search after and consider parallel passages
of Scripture, "comparing spiritual things with spiritual." I meditate
thereon, with all the attention and earnestness of which my mind is capable. If
any doubt still remain, I consult those who are experienced in the things of
God; and then, the writings whereby, being dead, they yet speak. And what I
thus learn, that I teach.

6. I have accordingly set down in the following sermons, what
I find in the Bible concerning the way to heaven; with a view to distinguish this
way of God, from all those which are the inventions of men. I have endeavoured
to describe the true, the scriptural, experimental religion, so as to omit
nothing which is a real part thereof, and to add nothing thereto which is not.
And herein it is more especially my desire, first, to guard those who are just
setting their faces toward heaven, (and who, having little acquaintance with
the things of God, are the more liable to be turned out of the way,) from
formality, from mere outside religion, which has almost driven heart religion
out of the world: and, secondly, to warn those who know the religion of the
heart, the faith which worketh by love, lest, at any time, they make void the
law through faith, and so fall back into the snare of the devil.

7. By the advice, and at the request of some of my friends,
I have prefixed to the other sermons contained in this volume, three sermons of
my own and one of my brother's, preached before the University of Oxford. My
design required some discourses on those heads. And I preferred these before
any others, as being a stronger answer than any which can be drawn up now, to
those who have frequently asserted -That we have changed our doctrine of late,
and do not preach now, what we did some years ago. Any man of understanding may
now judge for himself, when he has compared the latter with the former sermons.

8. But some may say, I have mistaken the way myself,
although I take upon me to teach it to others. It is probable, many will think
this, and it is very possible, that I have. But I trust, whereinsoever I have mistaken, my mind is open to conviction. I sincerely desire to be better informed. I say
to God and man, "What I know not, teach thou me!"

9. Are you persuaded you see more clearly than I? It is not
unlikely that you may. Then, treat me, as you would desire to be treated yourself
upon a change of circumstances. Point me out a better way than I have yet
known. Show me it is so, by plain proof of Scripture. And if I linger in the
path I have been accustomed to tread, and therefore am unwilling to leave it,
labour with me a little, take me by the hand, and lead me as I am able to bear.
But be not displeased if I entreat you, not to beat me down, in order to
quicken my pace: I can go but feebly and slowly at best; then, I should not be
able to go at all. May I not request of you, further, not to give me hard
names, in order to bring me into the right way. Suppose I were ever so much in
the wrong, I doubt this would not set me right. Rather, it would make me run so
much the farther from you, and so get more and more out of the way.

10. Nay, perhaps, if you are angry, so shall I be too; and
then there will be small hopes of finding the truth. If once anger arise, iutekapnos,
(as Homer somewhere expresses it,) this smoke will so dim the eyes of my soul,
that I shall be able to see nothing clearly. For God's sake, if it be possible
to avoid it, let us not provoke one another to wrath. Let us not kindle in each
other this fire of hell; much less blow it up into a flame. If we could discern
truth by that dreadful light, would it not be loss, rather than gain? For, how
far is love, even with many wrong opinions, to be preferred before truth itself
without love? We may die without the knowledge of many truths, and yet be
carried into Abraham's bosom. But, if we die without love, what will knowledge avail?
Just as much as it avails the devil and his angels!

The God of Love forbid we should ever make the trial! May he
prepare us for the knowledge of all truth, by filling our hearts with all his
love, and with all joy and peace in believing.